A former Archbishop of Canterbury minces no words about Islamic violence and the man who tried to kill Pope John Paul II issues a warning to Pope Benedict XVI:

THE former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey of Clifton has issued his own challenge to “violent” Islam in a lecture in which he defends the Pope’s “extraordinarily effective and lucid” speech.

Lord Carey said that Muslims must address “with great urgency” their religion’s association with violence. He made it clear that he believed the “clash of civilisations” endangering the world was not between Islamist extremists and the West, but with Islam as a whole.

“We are living in dangerous and potentially cataclysmic times,” he said. “There will be no significant material and economic progress [in Muslim communities] until the Muslim mind is allowed to challenge the status quo of Muslim conventions and even their most cherished shibboleths.”

Lord Carey’s address came as the man who shot and wounded the last Pope wrote to Pope Benedict XVI to warn him that he was in danger. Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to murder John Paul II in 1981 and is now in prison in Turkey, urged the Pope not to visit the country in November.

“I write as one who knows about these matters very well,” Agca said. “Your life is in danger. Don’t come to Turkey — absolutely not!”

The Pope is expected to speak once again about the Muslim rage provoked by his speech last week on reason, faith, and holy war:

At his weekly audience at the Vatican the Pope is expected to emphasise the dangers of violence and fundamentalism in all religions, not just Islam, and reiterate his call for a dialogue of faiths based on “mutual respect”. The pontiff will explain why he has been “misunderstood”, Vatican sources said.

Here’s a brief on his remarks this morning.

Lord Carey, however, isn’t backing away:

Arguing that Huntington’s thesis has some “validity”, Lord Carey quoted him as saying: “Islam’s borders are bloody and so are its innards. The fundamental problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilisation whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power.”

Lord Carey went on to argue that a “deep-seated Westophobia” has developed in recent years in the Muslim world.

Lord Carey was delivering a lecture titled The Cross and the Crescent: The Clash of Faiths in an Age of Secularism, at Newbold College, Berkshire.

Lord Carey, who has continued to work in interfaith collaboration since his retirement in 2002, said that the relationship between Islamic countries and the West was “the most dangerous, most important and potentially cataclysmic issue of our day.” He described the two civilisations as “polarised and uncomprehending” and said that the Danish cartoons controversy last March showed “two world views colliding in public space with no common point of reference”..

…He said he agreed with his Muslim friends who claimed that true Islam is not a violent religion, but he wanted to know why Islam today had become associated with violence. “The Muslim world must address this matter with great urgency,” he said.

Among the few and the brave:

Via Yahoo! News: Author Salman Rushdie (C) poses with fellow honorees Salim Mansur (L), Tashbih Sayyed (2nd L), Wafa Sultan (2nd R) and Nonie Darwish before the American Jewish Conference’s 30th Annual Dinner, ‘Profiles in Courage: Voices of Muslim Reformers in the Modern World,’ in Beverly Hills, California, September 17, 2006. Rushdie was presented with the organization’s highest honor, the Stephen S. Wise Humanitarian Award, during the event. REUTERS/Chris Pizzello (UNITED STATES)

Roger Simon was there and reports that many of the honorees will be writing over at Pajamas Media in coming days. They deserve support.